[thelist] Default Doc type

Alastair Campbell ac at alastc.com
Fri Jun 9 17:00:53 CDT 2006


Canfield, Joel wrote:
> if you want to challenge yourself and move to the next level of coding
> to standards, use XHTML

I'd agree with this. However, if you're trying to get something done now 
and aren't sure what to use: start with HTML 4.01.

Two main reasons:

1. XHTML is (or at least should be) much more strict on validation 
issues. Browsers may not render invalid XHTML at all. Ok, in practice 
they do, except perhaps in the mobile arena.

2. Unless you are doing funky XSL stuff or post processing on the 
output, there isn't much advantage currently. (And if you are using XSL 
for templating, it's easy to produce either, and you can change later 
easily anyway.)

I do agree with this, the best general article on the subject I've read:
http://www.webstandards.org/learn/articles/askw3c/oct2003/

However, I find that whenever people have to ask, they are usually best 
off sticking to HTML for the short term. If you've got time for a little 
learning curve that's great, go for XHTML. But it's better to get HTML 
right (or wrong) than to get XHTML wrong.

Hth,

-Alastair

Note to self: Do not read email after going to the pub. You find 
yourself clicking on links like this:
http://www.thatawesomewebsitethatmonitorsthewholewideworldandcreateswickedstatsforfree.com/

Damn.




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